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PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Trop. Dis.
Sec. Disease Prevention and Control Policy
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fitd.2025.1515350
Ventilator-associated pneumonia: importance of health surveillance for quality of care
Provisionally accepted
Leticia Janotti 1*
Juliana Loureiro de Queiroz Rodrigues 1 Claudia Dolores Trierweiler Sampaio de Oliveira Correa 2 Margareth Crisostomo Portela 1- 1 Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- 2 NOVA University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal
Serious public health problems as healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and multidrug-resistant microorganisms (MDRM) were worsened by the health crisis imposed by COVID-19 pandemic. The study analyzed the occurrence of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in hospitals in Rio de Janeiro state, in the first year before and after the beginning of COVID-19 in Brazil. An observational study was carried out based on public secondary data with restricted and unrestricted access, focusing on the evaluation, before and after the start of COVID-19, of indicators related to VAP in public, private, and philanthropic hospitals in Rio de Janeiro. The analyses carried out considered the data gathered from sources used, with aggregated variables, including hospital characteristics, VAP records and microbial drug resistance. In addition, linear models were used to identify factors associated with VAP and VAP incidence density. Literature review was carried out, including national regulatory standards.Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter spp. was the most prevalent microorganism in 2019 and 2020, with results indicating a 7.2% increase in notifications during the first year of the pandemic. VAP incidence density increased 7.8% in 2020, when it reached a monthly average per hospital of 11.70 VAP 1,000 VM-DAY. The increase in VAP notifications in the first year of COVID-19 pandemic corroborates the expectation of effects of the disease burden on the occurrence of HAIs. However, the findings have also exposed weaknesses in the health data gathering system. The study indicates the need to review HAI data collection tools with information on MDRM that cause VAP fundamental for healthcare quality improvement.
Keywords: COVID-19, pandemic, hospital infection, Microbial drug resistance, ventilator-associated pneumonia
Received: 23 Oct 2024; Accepted: 03 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Janotti, Rodrigues, Correa and Portela. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Leticia Janotti, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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